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Training the Trainers — Land Use Planning

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Forest biologist professor Yongut Trisurat has been an ardent advocate of the CLUMondo land use change model since he began using the software during a CEP training course in 2007. These days he regularly trains trainers on using CLUMondo to help build land use planning capacity in Thailand.

His background is in sustainable land use planning in a career that includes 10-years with the Royal Forest Department and, since 2001, lecturing at Kasetsart University’s Department of Forest Biology. He also conducts land use change analyses for development projects in Thailand.

Professor Trisurat has trained more than 50 government planners, academics, and development practitioners to use CLUMondo in his role as Thailand coordinator for CEP’s regional land use planning network. For him, the enhanced version of the CLUMondo tool is more user friendly and better supports sustainable land use planning.

“CLUMondo provides lots of opportunities for stakeholder engagement, especially in mapping out future land use scenarios. The tool is very useful for projecting future land use change and the impacts on ecosystem services,” he says.

“It is also unique in that its ecosystem service demand aspect helps us move beyond simple land use thinking.”

Professor Trisurat has already built up a strong group of CLUMondo experts in Thailand, but his work continues. His goal, he says, is to “fully embed” CLUMondo into the government’s land use planning processes.